Thursday, June 7, 2012

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

This was a fun children's mystery. I think it would be great for 4th-6th graders, but maybe even better if read as a class. It definely feels old fashioned. I can imagine really great discussions and enrichment exercises to go along.

The book begins with a wide variety of people being selected to live in an apartment building, and then ultimately chosen to solve a mysterious death with the reward of a huge inheritance. Mr. Westing has put them in pairs and given them clues.

Of course each team is made up of two individuals who greatly benefit from their new friendship. Most of the characters learn something and change for the better by playing the game.

The writing style is cook, the mystery is clever and I recommend this book for a quick fun read.

This looks great as I love children's books. Are you on Goodreads.com? It's a great site for keeping track of your reads and those of your friends.Also, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt was my all time favorite read last year in fiction and so far nothing has topped it this year yet either. If you go on Goodreads let us know your id. Do you really only read one book at a time? LOL! I have at least 2 or 3 going...all in different categories plus a magazine. So many books....so little time! :)

This was my favorite book from 5th grade and I've read it once as an adult - I still love it! As soon as I saw the title of this post I told my 2 oldest to add this one to their summer must read list. Thanks!